Your company’s website will be the hub for your business as it will act as a source of information and hopefully as a complimenting reflection. Whether you are a small business creating a site from scratch or a developed enterprise updating its current website, a well-crafted and versatile one will represent the strengths within your company. So how does one present their company in the best way possible through a website? The way to have a well-rounded website is to ensure that it is usable, visually attractive, and informative. Let’s break that down.
Having a usable website can mean a few different things, but ultimately having high usability throughout your site will mean it is functional for the site visitor to peruse and benefit from. Organization can greatly play into the functionality of the site, but what about mobile compatibility and even disability-friendly functions? As previously stated, your site will be a direct reflection of your business so not only do we want people to be able to find and visualize it, we want to be inclusive and ensure it is actually accessible to everybody and by everybody. Making a website usable to the disabled community can be done through simple additions such as adding alt-tags for screen reader software, using subtitles and transcripts if there are videos and/or audio present, and simply keeping the overall design simple and clear including color schemes.
When people visit your website, you want it to make a good first impression. The best way to do this is by having a clean, simple, and attractive design and layout. Less is more when it comes to having a modern and visually intriguing layout for your website. While it can seem important to throw as much information and visuals on the homepage as possible in order to inform and captivate visitors, it will end up appearing overwhelming and can actually have the opposite effect. No one wants to be bombarded when looking for information, services, or a product, so avoiding color schemes that can be too ‘in-your-face’ and busy visuals will prove to be more beneficial and welcoming. Prioritizing tabs and titles so they are easy to find, using muted or complimentary colors with one or two accent colors, and slow moving visuals if any will surely create an appealing and useful website.
In order for your site’s information to be informative, it needs to be read in the first place. Most often, large paragraphs or sentences in bulk will get skimmed through or simply ignored. When providing useful information on products, services, or your company in general it is best to keep it short and sweet. Informing people of your website can also include inbound leads, programmatic advertising, or blogging. Utilizing search engines and social media platforms to spread awareness of your content and give relevant information to prospects can lead traffic to your website that already have a concept of your purpose or what they may be interested in/want from your business.
When crafting or rebuilding a website, ensure that you have a clear understanding of the goals and expectations of the web platform. It is important to understand this prior to diving into new web design and layout options because what may look good, may not be enhancing the usability aspects and vice versa. The purpose of your website is to enhance and grow business so ultimately, ensuring it is compatible and well-suited to achieve the needs of your company will prove to be successful.
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Daniel James Consulting is a Full-Service Business Consulting Firm based in New York that designs solutions tailored specifically to the needs of your business in order to ensure you achieve continued success by designing, developing and implementing plans, metrics and platforms, be it a one-man operation, non-profit, startup or large organization. Our packaged solutions or a la carte selections include Website Design, Marketing & Advertising, Search Engine Positioning, and Graphic Design. Business Management Solutions are also available for companies of all sizes.
For more information please visit: www.danieljamesconsulting.com